Manage your real estate socials like a pro with these best practices
When it comes to social media best practices, there are several key principles to keep in mind to effectively manage your real estate social media presence. We’ll be discussing some best practices and tools for social media management below.
Best practice 1: Have a unique, consistent brand
It’s extremely important to maintain consistent branding across all social media platforms (and your presence elsewhere online). Use consistent colors, logos, typography, and voice to reinforce your brand identity. When your audience sees consistent visuals, messaging, and tone of voice across different platforms, they are more likely to recognize your brand and remember the content you put out into the world.
Suggested tools: If you don’t already have a logo, consider having one designed for you. Plus, did you know we now offer Headshots & Portraits? Update your headshot on marketing collateral to keep yourself fresh in clients’ minds. We also offer a new, complimentary, social-friendly Vertical Teaser made from your full-length Video Tour or Aerial Video which can help with those engaging, high-quality, “consistent visuals” that your audience can come to expect from your account.
Best practice 2: Set goals and learn about your audience
Before diving in, define your goals and target audience on social media. By clearly understanding your goals (such as increasing brand awareness, generating leads, driving website traffic, or engaging with your audience) you can tailor your content and tactics accordingly. By understanding who your ideal customers are, you can create content that resonates with them and addresses their specific needs.
Suggested tools: Use tools like Google Analytics, Instagram Insights, or Facebook Audience Insights to learn about who your current audience is. Find out which content performs best, when your audience tends to be online, and what kind of posts receive the most engagement. Also, don’t forget that if you’ve ordered a Property Website with Open Homes, you can track leads and see information about your website visitors. If you need help accessing or interpreting this data, just reach out to our Client Success team.
Best practice 3: Post consistently with a variety of content
A social media strategy is only effective if you stick with it. We recommend using a content calendar to plan out what to post and when to post it. By planning ahead, you have more time to create high-quality content and ensure it is well thought out, relevant, and aligned with your brand image.
Suggested tools: Check out our free sample content calendar below, which includes a posting schedule as well as content ideas. HubSpot also offers free content calendar templates to help you stay organized. If you’re interested in automating your posting process, tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social can post to all of your social accounts at once and include robust audience analytics for each platform.
Best practice 4: Use hashtags to help your audience find your content
Hashtags are words and phrases following the # symbol, used across social platforms to categorize and track content. When a hashtag is included in a post or comment, it becomes clickable and enables users to discover and engage with other content related to that specific topic. As such, hashtags are a powerful discovery tool because they allow your content to be found by users who are searching for or following specific topics. By including relevant and popular hashtags in your posts, you increase the visibility of your content and expand your reach to a wider audience. For example, in an Instagram post showcasing your newest listing, you may want to add hashtags for your brokerage, the architectural style of the house, and the city it’s in to help users interested in those subjects find your post.
Suggested tools: Research relevant hashtags using tools like Hashtagify to maximize your post reach. You can also create your own branded hashtags to encourage user-generated content, such as #JaneTheRealtor for your personal brand or #123MainStreet for a specific listing.
If you found this article helpful, please leave a comment or share this post! Be sure to check out the next part in the Social 101 series below, where we’ll be talking about how to use our free content calendar to begin planning your content and posting cadence.
